Seventeen thousand AT&T technicians and call center staff in California and Nevada returned to work Thursday after walking off the job Wednesday morning in protest of the company’s actions in changing working conditions in violation of federal law.

In an agreement reached late Wednesday night between the workers’ union, the Communications Workers of America, and AT&T leadership, the company will no longer require technicians to perform work assignments outside of their expertise and classification. The settlement agreement is below with explanations in red:

PORT SWAP SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT

March 22, 2017

The Company and the Union agree to the following as a full settlement of any and all port swap grievances at the District 9 and Labor Relations level, as well as any and all grievances at the local level regarding the port swap issue. This settlement is without prejudice to the position of either party and without citation in any other case, including but not limited to future grievances, arbitration and mediation hearings between the parties:

1- The U-verse Port Swap Process Improvement document dated 6/11/2015 (attached) is no longer a “live” document and it will not be further distributed to Premises Technicians.

2- Premises Technicians will be instructed to use and follow the WFE/U-verse Automated Port Test Tool/BBExpress process that instructs them how to run the tests required and they will follow the flows in Work Flow Engine/U-verse Port Test Tool/BBExpress.

Premises technicians will still be using WFE/U-verse Port Test Tool/BBExpress for multiple reasons, but under no circumstances will they use it to initiate or perform port swaps.

3- Premises Technicians will not manually (inclusive of calling or chatting) initiate or request a port swap. Premises Technicians will continue to follow the process in Work Flow Engine. The only port swaps that should occur are those port swaps that are a result of the Premises Technicians using and following the flows in Work Flow Engine/U-verse Port Test Tool/BBExpress.

Premises technicians will still be using the WFE/U-verse Port Test Tool/BBExpress for multiple reasons but under no circumstances will they use it to initiate or perform a port swap.

4- Should pop-ups or instructions on Work Flow Engine/U-verse Port Test Tool/BBExpress or any other tool for Premises Technicians instruct a Premises Technician to manually initiate (inclusive of calling or chatting) a port swap the Premises Technician will contact their supervisor for instructions and for the creation of a helper ticket for a technician whose job duties include manual port swaps. Such instructions will also be addressed by Local Management and the Local Union if necessary.

Should any process ask a Premises Technician to perform or initiate a port swap by pop ups or ask you to press continue to initiate or perform a port swap in WFE, don’t do the port swap. Contact your supervisor for instructions and play or move on and a helper ticket will be created.

5- This Agreement settles any and all grievances related to port swaps irrespective of who filed the grievance, including but not limited to grievances that are currently at the Locals’ office and the District 9 offices. This includes but is not limited to all grievances that are currently being held in abeyance as agreed to by CWA District 9 and AT&T Labor Relations. All port swap grievances will be vetted to ensure the grievance is related to a port swap and not any other scope of work issue. The Union will withdraw any charges filed with the NLRB regarding port swaps. This issue, as well as other Premises Technician scope of work issues, will continue to be discussed at the bargaining table.

All grievances mentioned will be gone through to make sure they pertain to port swaps, all others will continue in the grievance process.

Thanks to all the Locals that provided the pictures of CWA members on the Picket Line below.
Stay Engaged and Stay Informed.